Grilled 🍑 Over Frisée w Red Onion and Mint

I have never understood the whole grilled fruit thing. I know that cooking the fruit brings out its natural sugars to sweeten it but I generally like it raw. This summer though, the peaches were so big and bright. I had to think of a way to feature a perfect without slicing it. My goal was to create a fruity summer salad that was as clean and simple as possible. When the ingredients are perfect there is no need to overdo it. They shine on their own. This composed salad was sooooo good. The grilled peach halves caramelized beautifully and were delicious to the point that now I do get the grilled fruit thing. The crisp frisée was a nice way to anchor the peaches, while the diced red onion added some sharpness to cut the sweetness. Fresh mint leaves are my favorite summer garnish for most things involving fruit. This is an easy salad to travel with if you need to contribute a fabulous side dish to a get together. Just pack each of the components separately and quickly assemble on an attractive disposable platter. No mixing or tossing. The lettuce doesn’t even need to be dressed so as not to take away from the wonderful peach that holds the spotlight. Mama Nature knows her stuff.

Ingredients:

One firm but ripe yellow peach per person. Peaches should be large.

One diced red onion.

A dozen fresh mint leaves.

One or two containers of frisée lettuce.

Cut the peaches in half and remove pits. Heat an indoor grill pan on medium, brush with olive oil, and grill peach halves flat flesh side down until there are dark grill lines, several minutes. Flip and grill on other side just a minute. You want to balance heat throughout but not make it mushy. The peaches should be sweet and firm (Oy vey). When setting aside don’t use a fork; that will make holes. Platter the peaches on top of the frisée grilled side up. Scatter the diced onions and mint leaves. That’s it! I served this to a friend and she didn’t believe me that I hadn’t added a sugary glaze. The extra peaches were a treat I kept in the fridge to snack on. Get this one in before season is totally over.